Non-Partisan Support of Prescription Drug Importation State Laws Deviate from the National Political Norm

Trump supports prescription drug importation, and he’s not alone. An article by Kaiser Health News reporter Phil Galewitz headlined Trump’s support for drug importation to fight high drug prices at the state level. His article delves into the history of earlier state importation attempts, which were personal drug importation not wholesale drug importation programs. But the coolest thing I took from it was that the three states that passed prescription drug importation laws have governors across the political spectrum. None are traditional right-wing Republicans or super left Democrats. What does that look like?

In Florida, you have Governor Ron DeSantis, fashioning
himself in the mold of a Trumpist Republican.

In Vermont, you have Governor Phil Scott, who can best be
described with a phrase practically unheard of these days: Liberal
Republican.

Finally, newly elected Governor Jared Polis from Colorado is
a moderate Democrat.

While the state importation bill failed to advance in Utah, its vociferous champion in the state assembly is a very conservative Republican, Norm Thurston (Provo).

Another importation bill was introduced on a bipartisan
basis by Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the Safe and
Affordable Drugs from Canada Act, S.
61. It has 11 co-sponsors, but Sen. Grassley is the only Republican. The
House counterpart, H.R. 478, has 11 co-sponsors, among which only one (to her
credit) is a Republican, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA).

Finally, there’s the Affordable Insulin Act, H.R.
1478, which would make it legal to import insulin from Canada. Introduced
by Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), it has one co-sponsor, which I’m happy to say is a
Republican, Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL). If interested, I wrote at length about caravans
to Canada to buy insulin and possible actions activists could take to help people
safely import
insulin through mail-order pharmacy.

I have yet to hear Trump’s support for any of the
aforementioned federal legislation. Trump’s most vocal support is not
surprisingly directed toward his ideological bedfellow, Governor Ron DeSantis. People
will say, and not without justification, that this is politics to the core.
Trump needs Florida to win in 2020, DeSantis is a Trump supporter and now needs
him for his importation plan. As a reminder, however, importing prescription
medications, not Medicare drug price negotiations, was the only
policy to lower drug prices published on Trump’s campaign website. So, his
support for DeSantis cannot be seen as inconsistent with his campaign promises.

The state importation laws will only lead to importing
lower-cost drugs from Canada with approval from the federal government. DeSantis
has said, as reported in the Associated Press,
that Trump told Secretary of Health and Human Services to work with Florida to
move importation forward.

In the final analysis, this non-partisanship vibe on
importation is real. According to Galewitz, the three states are now working
together and will jointly present a drug importation program for review by HHS
Secretary Alex Azar. So even if Trump’s Twitter praise is dedicated to
DeSantis, all three states could benefit from the administration’s support.

The traditional Republican and Democratic lines in the sand
on many issues—immigration, guns and abortion, for example—do not exist on drug
prices. At least when it comes to real people: most Republicans, Democrats, and
indies! The country is united
against Big Pharma, not just with importation (80% support), but on
Medicare drug price negotiations (86% support) and other policies to lower drug
prices. Members of Congress who are beholden to drug company contributions can fail
in 2020 on this issue. As of now, that looks good for the Democrats, but many
of them, too, are in industry’s pocket.

The arguments against the wholesale drug importation
programs will continue unabated – funded by drug companies. At Prescription
Justice, we published a statement of support for the Florida law and those in
the other states, too, which went a long way to debunk
the myths against importation. Happy reading!